It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Walker. I want to thank the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Scully) for introducing the debate and the 265,272 members of the public who signed the petition, who include 663 people from my constituency.
I was disturbed to see in November’s CNN footage that two black men were being sold as slaves—I could not believe that that was happening in this day and age, in the 21st century. As black descendants of slaves, we thought that that had been abolished. The footage showed a detention centre where rescued and escaped slaves were staying, and a young man explained his story. I am aware that the Minister has raised concerns with the Libyan Government about the human rights situation in Libya, but how can we be sure that the Libyan Government will do something about it given that they are struggling to establish their own authority?